THE MARVELLOUS TREE

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE MARVELLOUS TREE

« QH, I shall never win the prize/' . cobbed Blinda, gazing out through the frosty window at the gaunt garden. "I shall never win the prize because uncle will be coming in a few weeks now, and the boys have all the beet, sheltered spots, and winter is such a long time going away." Down in the garden the frost glistened angrily. Over there, in that unsheltered place, a little, stunted tree stood black and forlorn. Blinda stepped gingerly from the white step of the garden door on to the brittle grass. She tiptoed across the lawn until she was standing near the little, stunted tree, which was lonely in a small square of frozea earth. She etood there until not only her toes and fingertips but also the tips of her ears and the tip of her nose tingled with the cold. "Ah, you poor little tree," she said. "You are all I have got. You can't help me, but you are at least something to talk to. Tell me, poor little tree, how am I going to win the prize? Uncle is such a great gardener that my garden will have to be extra special to win his prize, and all I've got is you, poor little tree, and this bare patch of frozen ground." As if to make Blinda more unhappy a rude wind came sweeping across the garden at that moment; the long, straggling branches of the stunted little tree bowed low to the ground; and Blinda's brothers, red-faced and noisy, tumbled from the house. "Hullo, Blinda," they shouted, "looking at your silly old garden, eh J You won't win uncle's prize. Uncle wouldn't give it to a girl anyway. Our garden is going to win. Look, it's evergreen, and doesn't mind the winter at all!" The boys were right. Their garden was protected by the fence, and was filled with sturdy evergreen bushes. S9 when she went to bed that night Blinda could not help thinking about the gardens and the prize. Uncle wa« a great gardener, and when he had stayed with them last he had promised a handsome prize to the one who had the best garden on hii next visit. That would be in a few weeks now, and, oh dear, the boys

would win easily. All she had was a frozen patch of ground and that silly old tree. But Blinda did go to sleep eventually, and she had a funny dream. She dreamt that she was standing by her garden and that suddenly the little stunted tree gave a big yawn, and then said: "Oh, dear, dear, how long is this winter going to last? I am so tired of sleeping like this. Besides, it makes one look so dowdy. Hurry up, spring!" Then the little, stunted tree gave another big yawn and seemed to close its eyes. Blinda had a strange feeling of hope. Down in the garden, when Blinda went there after breakfast, the white frost had disappeared, but the rude wind was still blowing, and great, grey clouds, like untidy sheep, lumbered across the sky. Underneath the little stunted tree Bliuda knelt, and with her small red hands she planted some mignonette flowers she had found in a box in the warm glasshouse. "Oh, do please grow, little flowers," she cried, "and help me win the prize. You're the only chance I've got. Yes, silly old tree, you can come to me in dreams and complain about the winter. But I really wish daddy had cut you up for firewood long ago. The garden would almost look better without you." Blinda said that because the little mignonette flowers really did look nice in the hard black earth; and she thought that she might have a chance with her garden after all. When it began drearily to rain, Blinda tripped happily back to the house. "The rain will make the mignonette flowers grow quickly," she said, "and that is just what I want." But the next morning it was still raining, and the morning after that, and the morning after that. And when Blinda was at last able to visit her garden again, with goloshes so big that she could scarcely lift one foot after the other, she found that the new mignonette flowers had entirely washed away. Only a few little petals were left, like silly pieces of confetti on the soft, black mud. Then Blinda felt such a hard lump creeping -up her throat that she was afraid she might choke. That very moment her brothers came slowly round from the back of the house,

and they had big lumps of rock in their arms, and they said: "Poor old Blinda, stick-stock-cinder, you don't know how to make a garden, and we're going to win the prize. Dad has given us these pieces of rock, and we're going to have a tremendous rock garden, with mosses, and creepers, and ice plants and ferns. Oh, and uncle will think it's awfully clever. Poor old Blinda, stick-stock-cinder, you don't know how to make a proper garden, and we're going to win the prize!" Then the lump in Blinda's throat couldn't get any higher, and she knew she was going to choke; so Blinda ran into the house, and up to her bedroom, and lay herself on the bed, still with the goloshes on, and she cried, and cried, and cried. That night Blinda again took a *jry long while to go to sleep, end the next night, and the next night, for many nights; and each time she had a funny dream in which the little stunted tree from the garden came and yawned and complained about the wintry weather. Until one morning Blinda awoke and felt rather sorry that she had been so abrupt to the little stunted tree. Then she suddenly remembered that uncle would be arriving on hie great visit to-morrow, and to-day was her last chance of making a proper garden to win the prize. So she gulped down her hot porridge and didn't mind when she her tongue, and she ran out into the garden as soon as she possibly could. There she rummaged about in the beds until she had collected many pieces of coloured tile, which had been thrown there when the builders broke up the hall floor; and these she took to her bare little garden and arranged in patterns, round the edge, up the middle, and in a circle about the little stunted tree. When she stood back and examined the result she was quite pleased, and went into her dinner feeling happy again. Poor Blinda! Everything was against her. After dinner she went out to see her garden and Bonzo the puppy had trampled all over her pretty pattern, turning some of the pieces of coloured tile upside down, and digging some of them back into the deep black earth. How Blinda cried! This time nothing would console her; and when

By Donald Cow/e

her brothers asked her if she would come and see their wonderful rock garden, finished now and ready for uncle, she decided that she would never try to compete with them again. It was a long and troubled night for poor Blinda, and when the morning came she said to herself, without opening her eyes, "I am going to get up and drees and run away, became I shall be so ashamed when unci® «se» my garden. I am going to run away, and I shall never come back again." With that Blinda poked one tired leg out of the bed, and then the other, She stood up and without opening her eyes began to dress. But there was such a peculiar nolsa in the garden outside, a noise like hundreds of little birds.

Promptly Blinda opened her «wollen ey6fl iind run to the window# Tbi sun wa« shining brightly. The »ky was blue and the garden wm green. The airwas warm, and, far over in the garden there, in the middle of Blinda'a neglected plot, WM the moat marvellous mystery. Until she had put on her shoes and stockings and had run down into the garden, Blinda could not believe that it was the little stunted tree. All the branches and twiga that had looked so dead yesterday were now covered with fluffy pink and whit® blossom. They covered all the plot, it seemed, and made everything else in the whole big garden look drab and untidy. When Blinda understood it really was the little stunted? tree she was so ashamed that she could not speak. But in her heart she said: "Oh, little tree, now I understand. And I am so ashamed I spoke so rudely to you. Please forgive me, and I will lov* you forever." Whereupon all the birds in the garden began to sing, the sun shone bright, and a gentle breeze caressed the little stunted tree so that myriads of dainty blossoms were strewn about Blindfl's feet. Then Blinda was so happy that she nearly began to cry again! But when her uncle came that afternoon and gave her the prize without so much as looking at the boys' garden, Blinda could laugh with joy.